Mt. McCoy
Peak 1,350ft P300
Peak 1,592ft P300

Nov 24, 2021

With: Jackie Burd

Etymology
Story Photos / Slideshow Map GPX

I had driven down from San Jose to pick up Jackie from UCSB for the Thanksgiving weekend. We were heading to my sister's place in Santa Clarita for the evening before driving down to San Diego to join the rest of the family for Thanksgiving Day. On our way between Santa Barbara and Santa Clarita, we paused for a break to stretch our legs and bag a few easy peaks before continuing our drive.

Peak 1,592ft

This summit is located southwest of Simi Valley, east of SR23 in the hills above Wood Ranch Reservoir (aka Bard Lake). Using the Sunset Hills Blvd exit, we drove to the end of McCrea Rd in a residential neighborhood and started from there. An informal trail follows up a drainage culvert to reach an Open Space trail that runs across the summit ridgeline, taking less than ten minutes to reach the top. A security fence surrounding the reservoir runs along the north side of the trail and over the summit. There are two points vying for the highpoint - the western point appears to be slightly higher than the eastern one with the 1,592-foot spot elevation. Both are rounded, grassy knolls. The summit offers views of the reservoir, surrounding hills, and the Thousand Oaks/Simi Valley communities.

Peak 1,350ft - Mt. McCoy

These closely-spaced summits are found on the west side of Simi Valley, near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. We parked on the northeast side of the summits at the end of Washburn St, in a residential neighborhood where Google Maps shows the Mt. McCoy Trailhead. This was a longer hike, about 2mi roundtrip and 600ft of gain. There are various informal trails one might use to reach the summits. On the ascent we used one that takes about 10 switchbacks to reach the shallow saddle between the summits, and a more direct way off McCoy for the descent. We visited the slightly higher Peak 1,350ft first, itself with two summits on the south and west sides of a large water tank. We visited the southern point first, from where the western one appears lower. So Jackie left me to visit the western one on my own before rejoining her. It wasn't obvious from the western point as to the highpoint and the GPXr readings were too inaccurate in the high wind conditions we found today, since it incorporates barometric pressure readings. Despite this, my money is on the southern point as the highpoint. We sauntered over to Mt. McCoy, topped by a white cross, with views overlooking Simi Valley. We found the descent route a bit treacherous with poor footing - the ascent route was much better, we thought. We spent about an hour on the roundtrip before continuing on our way to Santa Clarita.

Continued...


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